As integrated circuit fabrication technology improves, manufacturers are able to integrate additional functionality onto a single silicon substrate. As the number of these functionalities increases, however, so does the number of components on a single chip. Additional components add additional signal switching, in turn, creating more heat. The additional heat may damage a chip by, for example, thermal expansion. Also, the additional heat may limit the locations where a computer system may be installed. For example, if a computer is to be used in the same vicinity as a computer user (e.g., a desktop computer), industry standard environmental controls such as those used in data centers (sometimes costing millions of dollars) are impractical.
Accordingly, heat dissipation is one of the most important challenges facing the computer industry today in light of the growing need for computer speed and functionality. It is expected that within a few years, processors may be consuming more than 1,000 Watts of power. In response, numerous techniques are currently utilized by computer manufacturers to reduce the affects of this problem.
One common way to flush out heat is through utilization of fans in conjunction with heat sinks. Heat sinks are generally pieces of metallic material that pull the generated heat away from a chip. The fans then direct the extracted heat outside of the computer system. As the heat generated increases, however, so do the costs associated with providing an adequate heat sink. Another solution is liquid cooling which can be extremely expensive and is generally reserved for very expensive computer systems (such as super computers).
Other techniques include utilizing software procedures to improve parallelism and slowing down a chip's clock speed. Transmeta Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif., utilizes a software-based approach by replacing transistors with software instead of slowing down a processor. These techniques, however, add overhead for the software procedures invoked and are generally less desirable because of the potential complexity involved.